Holiday Party Hints
Cleaning Tips
By Mary
Findley copyright @2005
Ah the joys and wonders of the Holiday Season --
The brightly decorated homes, warm spiced cider by an
inviting fireplace, traditional family festivities,
guests coming for the Yuletide party. Wait a minute did
someone say guests and party in the same sentence? Oh
my, it's getting late and nothing has been done yet
about party planning let alone cleaning or preparing for
family for the traditional gathering of the clan.
All the preparation and cleaning must have been the
scary things Scrooge dreamt at night. It may be late but
Santa does not have sole rights to helpers nor is
Rudolph the only one in town with a bright shiny light.
Here are a few holiday guidelines to ensure Scrooge gets
a sound night's sleep while you borrow Santa's helpers
who happen to have hidden flashlights.
Take Note: Keep a pad handy to write down the
extra items you'll need for a party or Christmas dinner.
A second pad keeps a running tab of your "to do" list as
they come to mind at three AM. Keep an extra pad in the
car as well.
Weeks before your party, enter each room where people
will linger and look around with the eye of Sherlock
Holmes. Find a cubby hole for any unnecessary item until
after the New Year. The less left out, the less that
needs cleaning or can get broken. Remember the fastest
way to declutter a room is never leave that room empty
handed. Take something with you then put it away. Toss
or take to Goodwill any item that passed its usefulness.
Plan Ahead: As you plan for your party or holiday
dinner, write down things that your guests can help
prepare when they arrive. These might include taking
coats, opening wine bottles, mixing drinks, emptying
trash, keeping nut dishes filled, arranging fruit,
vegetable or cheese platters. Keep the list posted so
when guests ask to help, it is easy to refer them to the
list. Ask them to mark it off the list once they finish.
No more last hour kitchen mayhem directing people on how
they can help. Save this list on your computer for other
parties as well.
- Carry a clean
1 ½ inch paint brush in your back pocket while you are
decorating your home for the holidays. It is within
easy reach to whisk away cobwebs around lamps, door
hinges or other area we all miss during our regular
cleaning. Tuck a barely damp cloth into your other
back pocket to wipe down baseboards as you move
furniture making room for holiday decorations.
- Purchase
additional plastic tablecloths if you have small
children or pets coming for visits. Turn them soft
side up and place a towel on top of the tablecloth on
a bed or sofa where the pets or young children might
sleep. The towel catches any accident while the
plastic protects the bed, chair or couch. Then place
the table cloth under the small fry during meal time
to prevent carpet stains. Turn them into a place for
children's activities either on a table or the floor
to prevent stains, scratches and confine the toys.
Speed cleaning PhD:
- Let the phone
ring
- Put on some
fast bouncy music
- Hold off that
latte as a reward for getting the cleaning finished
not for getting it started.
Ignore the
advice you often read to do laundry etc as you clean --
what are they nuts? Your goal is to pick up speed while
you are cleaning. Every time you stop what you are doing
you loose that speed and it takes 10 minutes to get
going again.
Tuck all your cleaners in a tote tray. Forget the
cleaning aprons. They are trouble waiting to happen. Put
clean rags in one plastic bag and carry a second for
used rags. Then carry a trash bag to discard trash.
Gather everything you need before you start. Remember
don't stop- keep moving.
Turn your house cleaning into an aerobic exercise.
Nearly everything, except vacuuming, is a matter of
speed. Get both hands working - one moves objects as the
other cleans. Move fast enough to get your heart rate up
and put a sweat on your brow. You will love the time
savings and your body will love you!
Tricks of the trade include:
Quickly remove water ring marks in toilets with our
Erase It for Bathrooms without scratching the bowl like
a pumice stone. Then back the water out of the toilet
and dry the bowl. Spray the bowl with our Advantage
waterless car wash, wipe it to cover the entire bowl and
go clean the shower. Wipe the toilet with a dry towel
and allow the water to flow back in. Advantage contains
polymers, which makes surfaces slick so "things" don't
stick. Oh is post party cleanup a breeze. Then treat
your Corian countertops with Advantage as well to add
luster and help prevent stains.
Get rid of all leftovers in the refrigerator, clean the
refrigerator tossing any bottle that has not been used
for six months.
Preventive cures:
If you burn candles, place them up high or in areas
where people won't move them and never place them close
to flammable objects or where a child or pet might knock
them over. 100% soy candles are best to burn. They emit
very little smoke and most do not contain lead wicks. A
16 oz soy candle will burn for 30 to 40 hours. If you
light candles at a table or for a special ceremony, make
certain the surface is well protected.
You might want to decorate window sills to prevent
guests from placing glasses on the sills otherwise place
three or four coasters and napkins on the sills as well
as around all rooms that will be used.
Remove any antique or valuable furniture. Prevention is
wise for any party.
Replace end tables with folding tray tables setting one
or two extra in each room along with a decorative trash
can.
Cover coffee tables first with plastic then a holiday
table cloth followed by decorations and snacks if you
serve them in that room. Never serve nuts that must be
cracked open or snacks that have toothpicks. Both are
deadly to carpet and require hours of extra cleaning
labor.
It is permissible to ask guests to remove their shoes
before entering your home especially if you live in a
rainy or snowy area. One friend had everyone bring
colorful Christmas socks to wear. It was a riot with
everyone in their holiday dress.
Allow any mud to dry that does find its way onto your
carpet then vacuum it.
Keep it handy:
Our Ion-A-Clean, a patented, ionized water that is a
remarkable stain remover. Most stains can merely be
sprayed and left alone. Ion-A-Clean surrounds both the
stain and the carpet fibers negatively charging both
surfaces. The stain then releases from the carpet and an
hour later or after guests leave is quickly blotted to
remove the stain. It does not need to be rinsed. It
works quite well on red wine stains without leaving the
sticky residue that white wine or seltzer water leaves
behind both of which are more difficult to remove than
the red wine and damage carpet fibers.
Along with the Ion-A-Clean have several dry towels and
damp towels ready to tackle those spills. Keep a few dry
towels inside a cabinet front if possible in every room
where guests will linger. The faster you attend to a
stain the less damage the stain will cause.
Resist the temptation to serve colored punch drinks. If
you do keep a spray bottle filled with a 50/50 solution
of hydrogen peroxide to water. Immediately spray the
spot with the solution. Wait 15 to 20 minutes then blot
with a 50/50 solution of white vinegar to water.
Dampen a towel placing it and a mop just outside the
garage door. A towel is much faster to use than any
other mop to quickly remove spills from floors.
Keep a bottle of Bac-Out or Nature's Miracle found at
pet stores, close at hand for spills on flooring with
grout. Detergents cannot be used on any stone floor. The
enzymes in either product "eat" bacteria and will not
damage stone flooring.
A small cordless vacuum comes in quite handy and should
be close at hand as well as a pair of pliers and a screw
driver with all four heads tucked into the handle. Keep
these and a pair of scissors in a kitchen drawer.
Copy motels and tuck one or two extra trash bag at the
bottom of a trash container before placing the trash bag
inside. This prevents rushing around finding
replacements when the container needs emptying.
Mary Findley is a veteran cleaning expert and President
of the Mary Moppins. Over the past several years, Mary
has given multiple seminars and speeches to help people
become more productive and proficient in their cleaning
tasks. Her website -
www.goclean.com - also offers a wealth of cleaning
tips and advice to help consumers make the most of their
cleaning time. Mary’s expertise and experience also lead
her to create a line of cleaning products called the
Mary Moppins Cleaning System that is steadily growing in
popularity nationwide. Watch for her book "The
Complete Idiots Guide to Cleaning" coming to her
website and bookstores Jan, 2006.
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